POETRY

UNIT I

How Soon Hath Time - John Milton

The Village School Master - Oliver Goldsmith

UNIT II

Lucy Gray - William Wordsworth

Ode to Autumn - John Keats

UNIT III

Pied Beauty - Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Ballad of Father Gilligan - William Butler Yeats

UNIT IV

Conversation - Louis Mac Niece

First Things First - W. H. Auden

UNIT V

Next, Please - Philip Larkin

Churning Day – Seamus Heaney

UNIT I

How Soon Hath Time by John Milton

How soon hath Time, the subtle thief of youth,

Stol’n on his wing my three and twentieth year!

My hasting days fly on with full career,

But my late spring no bud or blossom shew’th.

Perhaps my semblance might deceive the truth,

That I to manhood am arrived so near,

And inward ripeness doth much less appear,

That some more timely-happy spirits endu’th.

Yet be it less or more, or soon or slow,

It shall be still in strictest measure even

To that same lot, however mean or high,

Toward which Time leads me, and the will of Heaven;

All is, if I have grace to use it so,

As ever in my great Taskmaster’s eye.

Milton's theme of time and youth in how soon hath time

In this sonnet, How Soon Hath Time Milton laments how his years are running out, but he

could not achieve much so far his poetic career was concerned. The poems is an early a vowel of

the poet’s ardent faith in God. His early regret is overcome by his complete faith in god who is

called his taskmaster. God, as a stern teacher, exacts the tasks of his devotee late or soon.

Moreover, the images in the sonnet have made it a perfect blend of paganism and Christianity

and they testify the poet’s absolute faith in god.

In the opening line of the sonnet time is composed to ‘the subtle thief of youth.’ It suggests

that time is a cleaver thief who steals the poet’s youthful days secretly and without violence. The

word ‘wing’ introduces the image of a bird and the word ‘fly’ testifies the image. As a whole, in

the eyes of Milton, time is a stealer bird that takes youth on a flight. Through this image Milton

wants to present time as a being continually flitting. He waits never and for none. So Milton is

keen to utilize time fruitfully and believes that the best use of time can only be done through

producing significant poetry.

In the first eight lines the poet regrets that his days are flying hastily and his youth has

produced no significant and fruitful works. He has arrived at manhood but his inner maturity has

not yet appeared although some happy spirits are endowed with maturity of thought and talent in

time. He has done nothing worthwhile yet.

In the sestet, he, however, hopes that soon or late, less or more, his spirit shall be equal to the

same lot as other spirits have had in youth. However high or low time will lead him to the same

fate by the will of god. If he has grace to use his talent, he will prove successful in the eyes of

god, who is the great taskmaster.

We come across the image of late spring that suggests late youth. The poet is now twenty-

three years old and so he has attained late youth. But the poet’s late youth bears neither buds nor

blossoms. Here ‘bud’ and ‘blossom’ suggest production by way of writing poetry. As a matter of

fact, Milton himself did not belong to the class of prolific writers. He wrote slowly and had a few

poetic works in his poetic career ranging from 1629 to 1639.

Thus, the poet overcomes his regret leaving an impression of his own Puritanism – his

absolute faith in providence. Neither at the same time he has personified time here, nor as their

bird but as the guide, the harbinger of destiny. As a result this sonnet blends paganism and

Christianity in harmony.

Summary of the poem

John Milton regrets that he has just completed twenty-three years of his age but he could not

produce anything worthwhile this time. His days are flying hastily. The poet looks younger than

his actual age. He is not inwardly matured to create anything significant. Though many writers

are endowed with timely spirit to achieve something but the poet has not produced any

worthwhile yet.

Then the poet expresses his hope that soon or late, less or more his spirit will be led to the lot

by the will of god. He will have god’s grace to use his talent and he will prove himself worthy in

the eye of god, his great task master.

THE VILLAGE SCHOOLMASTER

Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way

With blossom'd furze unprofitably gay,

There, in his noisy mansion, skill'd to rule,

The village master taught his little school;

A man severe he was, and stern to view,

I knew him well, and every truant knew;

Well had the boding tremblers learn'd to trace

The days disasters in his morning face;

Full well they laugh'd with counterfeited glee,

At all his jokes, for many a joke had he:

Full well the busy whisper, circling round,

Convey'd the dismal tidings when he frown'd:

Yet he was kind; or if severe in aught,

The love he bore to learning was in fault.

The village all declar'd how much he knew;

'Twas certain he could write, and cipher too:

Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,

And e'en the story ran that he could gauge.

In arguing too, the parson own'd his skill,

For e'en though vanquish'd he could argue still;

While words of learned length and thund'ring sound

Amazed the gazing rustics rang'd around;

And still they gaz'd and still the wonder grew,

That one small head could carry all he knew.

But past is all his fame. The very spot

Where many a time he triumph'd is forgot.

The Village Schoolmaster by Oliver Goldsmith Summary

Written as a sketch in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village"

At six years of age Goldsmith's village schoolmaster was Thomas (Paddy) Byrne and it is

thought he was the basis of the poem.

The poem is an excerpt from a longer poem by Goldsmith called "The Deserted Village" and

conveys the speaker's sentiments about a teacher. The word "village" in the title clearly suggests

that the poem is set in a rural area, probably where the speaker lived and was taught by the

subject of the poem. In the first two lines, the speaker mentions exactly where the school was

located. The fence beside which the school building was situated is described as "straggling,"

which means that it was dilapidated and probably leaning over. The road leading towards and

past the school was lined with flowers, which were "unprofitably gay." The phrase suggests that

the flowers that were blooming beautifully were not being admired or appreciated.

In the following couplet the speaker refers to the the school building itself, a "noisy mansion"

bustling with the activity of teaching and learning. The village teacher, equipped to manage a

class, taught his lessons there. The term "master" denotes the respect he enjoyed. The speaker

goes on to describe the teacher's character and style of teaching. Each description is rounded off

in a rhyming couplet.

The teacher was very strict and had a stern look about him. The speaker states that he "knew

him well," which means that he had an in-depth understanding of his teacher and could probably

read into his expressions and gestures. This familiarity could also have been the result of the

many personal and individual encounters he had had with his educator. The word "truant"

implies that the speaker may have been one of those who deliberately missed classes and who

had been confronted by the teacher about his misdemeanors.

Further aspects about the teacher's personality indicate that he had an expressive face and that

his pupils could easily read his mood as a result. They would, for example, know that a certain

ominous look spelled trouble coming, especially for those who had been disobedient. They

would be trembling in anticipation and fear of what was to come. It is clear that the teacher also

had a good sense of humor, for "many a joke had he." The students would feign pleasure at his

funny stories and laugh at them, probably to avoid being reprimanded.

Word would quickly spread around the classroom about impending trouble whenever the

teacher scowled. The speaker provides a contrast to the teacher's strict demeanor not only by

stating that he was humorous at times but also by mentioning that he was kind. The speaker

states that if one should take it to the extreme, it could be said that the teacher's greatest flaw was

that he loved learning too much.

...or if severe in aught,

The love he bore to learning was in fault.

The schoolmaster was not only much admired and respected by his students but was evidently

also looked up to by the village residents. Everyone seemed to have praise for his great

knowledge. It was a known fact in the village that he could write, do mathematics, and predict

weather patterns and tides. It was also assumed that he was an accurate surveyor who could

determine borders easily. It is apparent that he could also debate intelligently and be involved in

discussions with the village parson, a person who was greatly respected by his parishioners. The

teacher seemed to be a fierce opponent in such discourse, for he would continue arguing a point

even after he had already lost the dispute. The master would use difficult words and emotive

language to sound convincing and impress the poorly educated village folk.

People in this rural community were in awe that the teacher could know so much. They could

not understand how his small head could contain so much knowledge. The poem ends, however,

on a sad and poignant note. The final couplet tells us that all the teacher's achievements have

become a thing of the past. The place where he had enjoyed so much success has ceased to exist

and has been forgotten.

The eulogistic nature of the poem conveys the speaker's respect and admiration for his

erstwhile educator. The poem also reflects the changes that occurred in rural communities when

land was divided and property was abandoned or claimed by private landowners. Many

inhabitants then emigrated to find a home elsewhere.

UNIT II

Lucy Gray by William Wordsworth

Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray,

And when I cross'd the Wild,

I chanc'd to see at break of day

The solitary Child.

No Mate, no comrade Lucy knew;

She dwelt on a wild Moor,

The sweetest Thing that ever grew

Beside a human door!

You yet may spy the Fawn at play,

The Hare upon the Green;

But the sweet face of Lucy Gray

Will never more be seen.

"To-night will be a stormy night,

You to the Town must go,

And take a lantern, Child, to light

Your Mother thro' the snow."

"That, Father! will I gladly do;

'Tis scarcely afternoon—

The Minster-clock has just struck two,

And yonder is the Moon."

At this the Father rais'd his hook

And snapp'd a faggot-band;

He plied his work, and Lucy took

The lantern in her hand.

Not blither is the mountain roe,

With many a wanton stroke

Her feet disperse, the powd'ry snow

That rises up like smoke.

The storm came on before its time,

She wander'd up and down,

And many a hill did Lucy climb

But never reach'd the Town.

The wretched Parents all that night

Went shouting far and wide;

But there was neither sound nor sight

To serve them for a guide.

At day-break on a hill they stood

That overlook'd the Moor;

And thence they saw the Bridge of Wood

A furlong from their door.

And now they homeward turn'd, and cry'd

"In Heaven we all shall meet!"

When in the snow the Mother spied

The print of Lucy's feet.

Then downward from the steep hill's edge

They track'd the footmarks small;

And through the broken hawthorn-hedge,

And by the long stone-wall;

And then an open field they cross'd,

The marks were still the same;

They track'd them on, nor ever lost,

And to the Bridge they came.

They follow'd from the snowy bank

The footmarks, one by one,

Into the middle of the plank,

And further there were none.

Yet some maintain that to this day

She is a living Child,

That you may see sweet Lucy Gray

Upon the lonesome Wild.

O'er rough and smooth she trips along,

And never looks behind;

And sings a solitary song

That whistles in the wind

Critical Analysis of the Poem Lucy Gray

The poem Lucy Gray was written by William Wordsworth based upon a real account of death of a little girl narrated to him by his sister Dorothy. In the poem the poet portraits imagery of a little solitary girl who lived in a house in valley with her father and mother. As she did not have any friend, her most of time was spent in playing alone or helping her parents. Wordsworth further progress by adding that one can get a chance to see a fawn or a rabbit while passing through those valleys (which are usually hard to trace) but you will never be able to see the innocent face of Lucy Gray. Now Wordsworth takes us back to the sad incident. It was an afternoon and Lucy was at home with her father. Her mother had gone to the town. Her father took his hook and started to pile bundle and instructed Lucy to take the lantern and bring her mother safe before evening because they were anticipation storm. She left for the town but against expected time, the storm arose earlier and Lucy lost the way. She searched for the way back to home but could never find. Her mother came back home. Worried her parents explored the entire valley whole night to catch a sight of Lucy but she was nowhere found. At the break of the day her parents found patterns of Lucy’s small feet in the snow. They started following those footprints which led them to bridge of the wood which was only a furlong far from there house and after that prints disappeared. It was indication that Lucy had died. Her parents lament for her. The dearest child of the nature was gone. But it is still in belief that Lucy is alive and sings her solitary song in the valley. Noticeable in this poem is that Wordsworth has not stresses upon death of Lucy but after her death her fusion with the nature. He has tries to associate boundaries of birth and death by this beautiful and calamitous ballad. Wordsworth as a poet of nature, in this poem has associated the action of death with the nature. After the death of Lucy also it is believed that she is alive and her song whistles in the air in the valley as if she has become part of the nature. Beautiful imagery, similes are quite seen as the very flair of William Wordsworth. Comments and Critical Appreciation of the Poem: Lucy Gray was written by Sir William Wordsworth in 1799 and published in the second edition of ‘Lyrical Ballad’, collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge in 1800. The poem states story of a little girl named Lucy Gray who died early on a story night in countryside. She lived somewhere in western countryside with her parents. The clue of living in Western Countryside is given in lines ‘The minster-clock has just struck two,/And yonder is the moon!" moon

is visible during day time there. She had a small family and no friends. As a solitary child’ she had no mate or someone to talk, ply or share. Poem Lucy Gray starts with the reference to a popular story of Lucy Gray. Wordsworth has represented Lucy as a child of nature. We can notice in the poem Lucy perhaps, often used to help her parents in small house works because when her mother goes out of the town, her father sends her to fetch her mother. But when storm comes before expected time, Lucy lost her way keep searching for the right path and mysteriously dies. Death of an innocent lonely child hits reader deep and leaves an impact of sorrow. In the end of the poem the poet takes help of supernatural theory to keep Lucy alive in hearts. People still believe that Lucy is not dead and her spirit roams and sings the songs which whistles in the air. This supernatural theme indicates how strongly Lucy was attached to her town and singing her solitary song implies how lonely she was. Tragic end of the poem leaves an everlasting impact on the readers. The ballad is written lyrically. A scenic view stands in front of the eyes while reading the poem and imagery is widely used but nowhere seems to be in the excess. Unfortunate death of the little girl in the end of the poem and then keeping her alive in the hearts with the help of supernatural elements is the very own style of Wordsworth.

Ode to Autumn by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease;

For Summer has o’erbrimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing1 wind;

Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river-sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Critical Analysis of the Poem Ode to Autumn

In this poem Keats describes the season of Autumn. The ode is an address to the season. It is the

season of the mist and in this season fruits is ripened on the collaboration with the Sun. Autumn loads the

vines with grapes. There are apple trees near the moss growth cottage. The season fills the apples with juice.

The hazel-shells also grow plumb. These are mellowed. The Sun and the autumn help the flowers of the

summer to continue. The bees are humming on these flowers.

They collect honey from them. The beehives are filled with honey. The clammy cells are overflowing

with sweet honey. The bees think as if the summer would never end and warm days would continue for a long

time. Autumn has been personified and compared to women farmer sitting carefree on the granary floor; there

blows a gentle breeze and the hairs of the farmer are fluttering. Again Autumn is a reaper. It feels drowsy and

sleeps on the half reaped corn. The poppy flowers have made her drowsy. The Autumn holds a sickle in its

hand. It has spared the margin of the stalks intertwined with flowers. Lastly, Autumn is seen as a worker

carrying a burden of corn on its head.

The worker balances his body while crossing a stream with a bundle on his head. The Autumn is like

an onlooker sitting the juicy oozing for hours. The songs and joys of spring are not found in Autumn seasons.

But Keats says that Autumn has its own music and charm. In an autumn evening mournful songs of the gnats

are heard in the willows by the river banks. Besides the bleat of the lambs returning from the grassy hills is

heard. The whistle of the red breast is heard from the garden. The grasshoppers chirp and swallow twitters in

the sky. This indicates that the winter is coming.

Ode to Autumn is an unconventional appreciation of the autumn season. It surprises the reader with the

unusual idea that autumn is a season to rejoice. We are familiar with Thomas Hardy's like treatment of autumn

as a season of gloom, chill and loneliness and the tragic sense of old age and approaching death. Keats sees the

other side of the coin. He describes autumn as: "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness! / Close bosom friend

of the maturing sun". He understands maturity and ripeness as one with old age and decay. Obviously thin, old

age is a complement to youth, as death is to life. Keats here appears as a melodist; he seems to have accepted

the fundamental paradoxes of life as giving meaning to it. The very beginning of the poem is suggestive of

acceptance and insight after a conflict.

The subject matter of this ode is reality itself at one level: Keats depicts the autumn season and claims

that its unique music and its role of completing the round of seasons make it a part of the whole. Although

autumn will be followed by the cold and barren winter, winter itself will in turn give way to fresh spring. Life

must go on but it cannot continue in turn give way to fresh spring. Life must go on but it cannot continue

without death that completes one individual life and begins another. This is indirectly conveyed with the

concluding line of the ode: "And gathering swallows twitter in the skies". In one way, this gives a hint of the

coming winter when shallows will fly to the warm south.

The theme of ripeness is complemented by the theme of death and that of death by rebirth. So, in the

final stanza, the personified figure of autumn of the second stanza is replaced by concrete images of life.

Autumn is a part of the year as old age is of life. Keats has accepted autumn, and connotatively, old age as

natural parts and processes them.

Among the six wonderful Odes of Keats To Autumn occupies a distinct place of its own, for it is, in

execution, the most perfect of his Odes. Many critics agree in ranking To Autumn first among Keats’ Odes. Its

three eleven-line stanza ostensibly do nothing more than a season; no philosophical reflections intrude. His

simple love of Nature without any tinge of reflectiveness and ethical meaning finds expression in To Autumn.

The scented landscape in the first stanza, and the music of natural sounds in the last stanza would have been

enough for most poets, but the effect would have been incomplete without the figures of the winnower, the

reaper, the gleaner and the cider-presser which give a human touch to Autumn. Although the poem contains

only three stanzas, Keats has been successful in expressing the beauty, the charm, the symphony of Autumn,

and the ageless human activities in the lap of Nature.

To Autumn is, in a sense, a return to the mood of the Ode on Indolence-«making the moment sufficient

to itself. It is, apparently, the most objective and descriptive poem, yet the emotion has become so completely

through it. There is no looking before and after in this poem as Keats surrenders himself fully to the rich

beauty of the season. He is not troubled by the thought of the approaching winter nor by that of the vanished

spring. In this approach to Nature he remains the great artist that he was. Neither philosophy taints his

thoughts, nor does sorrow cloud his vision. Other poets have thought of Autumn as the season of decay. But to

Keats, Autumn was the season of mellow fruitfulness and happy content. He is content with the autumn music,

however pensive it may be.

There are no echoes in it, no literary images; all is clear, single, perfectly attuned. Our enjoyment of

the beauty and peace of the season is disturbed by no romantic longing, no classic aspiration, no looking before

and after, no pining, for what is not, no foreboding of winter, no regret for the spring that is gone, and no

prophetic thought of other springs to follow. To Autumn expresses the essence of the season, but it draws no

lesson, no overt comparison with human life. Keats was being neither allegorical, nor Wordsworthian. Keats in

this poem is almost content with the pure phenomenon. He describes Nature as she is.

This is the secret of Keats’s strength, his ability to take the beauty of the present moment, so

completely into his heart that it becomes an eternal possession. For him the poetry of the earth is never dead. It

is noteworthy that To Autumn is the only major poem of Keats that is completely unsexual. Woman as erotic

object has been banished from this placid landscape. Keats’ sense of the wholeness of life is nowhere

communicated so richly or with such concentration as in this Ode. The characteristic tension of the other Odes

makes them more passionate, perhaps, but leaves them with a sense of strain. Here all is relaxed and calm, life-

accepting.

UNIT III

PIED BEAUTY by G. M. HOPKINS

Glory be to God for dappled things—

For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;

For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;

Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;

Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;

And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;

Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)

With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;

He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him.

Pied Beauty Summary

The poem opens with an offering: “Glory be to God for dappled things.” In the next five

lines, Hopkins elaborates with examples of what things he means to include under this rubric of

“dappled.” He includes the mottled white and blue colors of the sky, the “brinded” (brindled or

streaked) hide of a cow, and the patches of contrasting color on a trout. The chestnuts offer a

slightly more complex image: When they fall they open to reveal the meaty interior normally

concealed by the hard shell; they are compared to the coals in a fire, black on the outside and

glowing within. The wings of finches are multicolored, as is a patchwork of farmland in which

sections look different according to whether they are planted and green, fallow, or freshly

plowed. The final example is of the “trades” and activities of man, with their rich diversity of

materials and equipment.

In the final five lines, Hopkins goes on to consider more closely the characteristics of these

examples he has given, attaching moral qualities now to the concept of variety and diversity that

he has elaborated thus far mostly in terms of physical characteristics. The poem becomes an

apology for these unconventional or “strange” things, things that might not normally be valued

or thought beautiful. They are all, he avers, creations of God, which, in their multiplicity, point

always to the unity and permanence of His power and inspire us to “Praise Him.”

Form

This is one of Hopkins’s “curtal” (or curtailed) sonnets, in which he miniaturizes the traditional

sonnet form by reducing the eight lines of the octave to six (here two tercets rhyming ABC ABC)

and shortening the six lines of the sestet to four and a half. This alteration of the sonnet form is

quite fitting for a poem advocating originality and contrariness. The strikingly musical repetition

of sounds throughout the poem (“dappled,” “stipple,” “tackle,” “fickle,” “freckled,” “adazzle,”

for example) enacts the creative act the poem glorifies: the weaving together of diverse things

into a pleasing and coherent whole.

Commentary

This poem is a miniature or set-piece, and a kind of ritual observance. It begins and ends with

variations on the mottoes of the Jesuit order (“to the greater glory of God” and “praise to God

always”), which give it a traditional flavor, tempering the unorthodoxy of its appreciations. The

parallelism of the beginning and end correspond to a larger symmetry within the poem: the first

part (the shortened octave) begins with God and then moves to praise his creations. The last four-

and-a-half lines reverse this movement, beginning with the characteristics of things in the world

and then tracing them back to a final affirmation of God. The delay of the verb in this extended

sentence makes this return all the more satisfying when it comes; the long and list-like predicate,

which captures the multiplicity of the created world, at last yields in the penultimate line to a

striking verb of creation (fathers-forth) and then leads us to acknowledge an absolute subject,

God the Creator. The poem is thus a hymn of creation, praising God by praising the created

world. It expresses the theological position that the great variety in the natural world is a

testimony to the perfect unity of God and the infinitude of His creative power. In the context of a

Victorian age that valued uniformity, efficiency, and standardization, this theological notion

takes on a tone of protest.

Why does Hopkins choose to commend “dappled things” in particular? The first stanza would

lead the reader to believe that their significance is an aesthetic one: In showing how contrasts and

juxtapositions increase the richness of our surroundings, Hopkins describes variations in color

and texture—of the sensory. The mention of the “fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls” in the fourth line,

however, introduces a moral tenor to the list. Though the description is still physical, the idea of

a nugget of goodness imprisoned within a hard exterior invites a consideration of

essential value in a way that the speckles on a cow, for example, do not. The image transcends

the physical, implying how the physical links to the spiritual and meditating on the relationship

between body and soul. Lines five and six then serve to connect these musings to human life and

activity. Hopkins first introduces a landscape whose characteristics derive from man’s alteration

(the fields), and then includes “trades,” “gear,” “tackle,” and “trim” as diverse items that are

man-made. But he then goes on to include these things, along with the preceding list, as part of

God’s work.

Hopkins does not refer explicitly to human beings themselves, or to the variations that exist

among them, in his catalogue of the dappled and diverse. But the next section opens with a list of

qualities (“counter, original, spare, strange”) which, though they doggedly refer to “things”

rather than people, cannot but be considered in moral terms as well; Hopkins’s own life, and

particularly his poetry, had at the time been described in those very terms. With “fickle” and

“freckled” in the eighth line, Hopkins introduces a moral and an aesthetic quality, each of which

would conventionally convey a negative judgment, in order to fold even the base and the ugly

back into his worshipful inventory of God’s gloriously “pied” creation.

THE BALLAD OF FATHER GILLIGAN by W. B. YEATS

The old priest Peter Gilligan

Was weary night and day

For half his flock were in their beds

Or under green sods lay.

Once, while he nodded in a chair

At the moth-hour of the eve

Another poor man sent for him,

And he began to grieve.

'I have no rest, nor joy, nor peace,

For people die and die;

And after cried he, 'God forgive!

My body spake not I!'

He knelt, and leaning on the chair

He prayed and fell asleep;

And the moth-hour went from the fields,

And stars began to peep.

They slowly into millions grew,

And leaves shook in the wind

And God covered the world with shade

And whispered to mankind.

Upon the time of sparrow chirp

When the moths came once more,

The old priest Peter Gilligan

Stood upright on the floor.

'Mavrone, mavrone! The man has died

While I slept in the chair.'

He roused his horse out of its sleep

And rode with little care.

He rode now as he never rode,

By rocky lane and fen;

The sick man's wife opened the door,

'Father! you come again!'

'And is the poor man dead?' he cried

'He died an hour ago.'

The old priest Peter Gilligan

In grief swayed to and fro.

'When you were gone, he turned and died,

As merry as a bird.'

The old priest Peter Gilligan

He knelt him at that word.

'He Who hath made the night of stars

For souls who tire and bleed,

Sent one of this great angels down,

To help me in my need.

'He Who is wrapped in purple robes,

With planets in His care

Had pity on the least of things

Asleep upon a chair.'

The Ballad of Father Gilligan by W.B Yeats summary

W.B Yeats’ “The Ballad of Father Gilligan” is written in the style of ballad with twelve stanzas of

four lines. Ballad is a simple narrative poem written in a simple language. The theme of the poem

is about the presence of God everywhere and his love for all. The poem is about a miracle happened

in the life of Father Gilligan, an old priest.

The poem begins with the introduction of Peter Gilligan, an old priest. He helps his people,

who are under his church. Half of his people are in death bed or buried under the ground due to

sickness. He treats the sick people and conducts funeral for the dead. He treats them day and night

and thus becomes very tired. One day due to his tiredness he is about to sleeps on his chair. The

presence of insects indicates it as evening. At that time someone calls for the priest’s help. The

priest feels upset about being called. His continuous help to the needy people and his tiredness

makes him to get upset. Because of his tiredness he says that he does not have rest, happiness or

peace as people under his parish die continuously. Immediately he feels sorry for saying such

words. He begs God to forgive him because those words are spoken by his body and not by him.

Father Gilligan kneels down on the floor to get forgiveness from God. He leans on the chair

and prays and due to his tiredness he sleeps. Now the insects have gone and the stars begin to

appear. As night starts the sky is filled with stars. Due to the flow of wind leaves are falling from

the trees. God covers the world with darkness and speaks slowly to mankind.

Chirping of sparrows indicate the early hours of morning time. The insects come once

again. At that time Father Gillian wakes up from his sleep. He is shocked to know that he slept for

a long time. He blames himself by saying that the person who needed his help might have died.

He wakes his horse and rides very fast. He rides rashly over narrow roads and wet lands and

reaches the sick man’s house. By seeing the Father, the sick man’s wife wonders that he has come

again.

Father Gilligan asks whether the man died and the wife replies that he died an hour ago. In

sadness the priest walks to and fro. The woman replies that after the priest leaves he died in a

peaceful manner. Hearing such word Father Gilligan kneels on the floor. He says that God has

made the stars at night to comfort the souls. God might have sent one of His angels to help him.

God is a king in purple colour robes and takes care of all the planets. It shows that god has many

big responsibilities. Even with such responsibility God had pity on a simple person like Father

Gilligan when he slept. Father Gilligan feels grateful to God for being kind and merciful to him.

The poem shows the love and care of God for whom all the lives are equal and important.

UNIT IV

Conversation by Louis Mac Niece

Ordinary people are peculiar too:

Watch the vagrant in their eyes

Who sneaks away while they are talking with you

Into some black wood behind the skull,

Following un-, or other, realities,

Fishing for shadows in a pool.

But sometimes the vagrant comes the other way

Out of their eyes and into yours

Having mistaken you perhaps for yesterday

Or for tomorrow night, a wood in which

He may pick up among the pine-needles and burrs

The lost purse, the dropped stitch.

Vagrancy however is forbidden; ordinary men

Soon come back to normal, look you straight

In the eyes as if to say 'It will not happen again',

Put up a barrage of common sense to baulk

Intimacy but by mistake interpolate

Swear-words like roses in their talk.

Critical Analysis of the Poem Conversation

Louis MacNeice’s “Conversation” describes the discrepancy between the outwardly ordinary

appearance of some people and the secret “vagrancy” that sometimes surfaces mid-

conversation.This poem also refers to that part of us which does not fit within the parameters

defined by society as our "vagrancy." This vagrancy, a tendency to wander within our own minds

and depart from what is expected of us

The poem describes the vagrancy as undesirable to the ordinary person: they apologize for it

with their eyes, rebuild the common sense in their conversations, and reject the possibility of

intimacy that the emergence of the vagrant may have suggested.

MacNeice’s poem utilizes an abacbc rhyme scheme in each stanza, and the image of the

“vagrant” is an extended metaphor that lasts throughout the poem’s three stanzas. The vagrant

metaphor conveys the secret and socially unacceptable strangeness and honesty which seemingly

ordinary people hide to maintain polite conversation.

Most people will recognize when they have made such an error and will apologize and tell

themselves it will not happen again, but sometimes the attempt to conceal the error continues to

make the error obvious. The nervous conversationalist might drop "swear-words like roses in

their talk" in an attempt to divert attention away from this part of themselves we all pretend does

not exist.

MacNeice argues that this forbidden "vagrancy" is kept secret but frequently comes out

accidentally in polite conversation, only to be rejected and apologized for by the speaker.

First Things First by W.H. Auden

Woken, I lay in the arms of my own warmth and listened

To a storm enjoying its storminess in the winter dark

Till my ear, as it can when half-asleep or half-sober,

Set to work to unscramble that interjectory uproar,

Construing its airy vowels and watery consonants

Into a love-speech indicative of a Proper Name.

Scarcely the tongue I should have chosen, yet, as well

As harshness and clumsiness would allow, it spoke in your praise,

Kenning you a god-child of the Moon and the West Wind

With power to tame both real and imaginary monsters,

Likening your poise of being to an upland county,

Here green on purpose, there pure blue for luck.

Loud though it was, alone as it certainly found me,

It reconstructed a day of peculiar silence

When a sneeze could be heard a mile off, and had me walking

On a headland of lava beside you, the occasion as ageless

As the stare of any rose, your presence exactly

So once, so valuable, so very now.

This, moreover, at an hour when only too often

A smirking devil annoys me in beautiful English,

Predicting a world where every sacred location

Is a sand-buried site all cultured Texans do,

Misinformed and thoroughly fleeced by their guides,

And gentle hearts are extinct like Hegelian Bishops.

Grateful, I slept till a morning that would not say

How much it believed of what I said the storm had said

But quietly drew my attention to what had been done

—So many cubic metres the more in my cistern

Against a leonine summer—, putting first things first:

Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.

Critical Analysis of the Poem First Things First

First Things First" treats the problem of writing poetry in the era of subjective uniqueness. It

depicts the absence of happiness in enjoying nature. The poem begins with the speaker’s

listening to the storm in the dark winter night. The speaker was inspired by the storm so much

that he wanted to compose a poem.

He chose to compose a poem in praise of the storm. He imagined the storm to be a ‘god-

child of the Moon and the West Wind’. Being the child of god, it has ‘the power to tame both

real and imaginary monsters’. You are everywhere and make your impression wherever you are.

The speaker was alone and found the storm so loud and pushing him to recollect how that day

was spent. He imagined all this amidst peculiar silence when a sneeze could be heard a mile off.

He also imagined a walk in the land of lava and cherished it as ageless, valuable, and precious

like a rose.

The speaker was also thinking about writing about the commercialism because of which

people are so materialistic and blindly lead a busy life forgetting nature. He criticises the life

style of Texans and gets annoyed at the ‘sand buried sites’ visible everywhere. Gentleness is

scarcely visible and has become extinct like the ideology of Hegel. Thinking about all these, he

slept off.

Next morning, when he woke up, he never thought of last night ideas. His attention was

only about the water collected in the cistern. He started worrying about the on coming summer.

His concern towards nature is no longer as he thought of lastnight. Like others, he too became

quite practical putting first things first. He says at last, “Thousands have lived without love, not

one without water”.

So. in "First Things First," the noisy storm. which has no sacred public associations, is

translated by 'active re-creation" into the memory of a sacred personal moment of silence in a

quite different landscape. And it speaks, as a modern poem speaks, to a solitary listener. This is

an imposingly great poem.

Unit V

Next Please by Philip Larkin

Always too eager for the future, we

Pick up bad habits of expectancy.

Something is always approaching; every day

Till then we say,

Watching from a bluff the tiny, clear

Sparkling armada of promises draw near.

How slow they are! And how much time they waste,

Refusing to make haste!

Yet still they leave us holding wretched stalks

Of disappointment, for, though nothing balks

Each big approach, leaning with brasswork prinked,

Each rope distinct,

Flagged, and the figurehead wit golden tits

Arching our way, it never anchors; it's

No sooner present than it turns to past.

Right to the last

We think each one will heave to and unload

All good into our lives, all we are owed

For waiting so devoutly and so long.

But we are wrong:

Only one ship is seeking us, a black-

Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back

A huge and birdless silence. In her wake

No waters breed or break.

Critical Analysis of the Poem Next, Please

Next, Please is a bleak reflection on life and the inevitability of death. He argues that people

spend too long fixated on the future, forgetting to live in the present. In this poem he looks at

people who have wasted their present, waiting for a future that never comes.

The title, ‘Next, Please’, effectively summarises the sense of urgency the people feel within

the poem. Larkin categorises the characters of the poem, indeed ‘we’, as impatiently waiting for

the future to arrive. The use of the imperative ‘next’ suggests a tone of impatience, with the title

demanding the arrival of the future, similarly to how the people within the poem are also eagerly

waiting. In this poem ‘Next’ symbolises the future, with the demand for its arrival suggesting a

dangerous disregard of the present.

A tone of impatience, first suggested within the title, is instantly communicated through the

word ‘eager’ within the first line. This tone of impatience is continued throughout Next, Please,

characterising the poem.

Larkin creates a certain divide between ‘We’ and ‘Them’. ‘We’, those who passively wait for

the future, and the future actively drawing nearer. This seeming reversal, with the future being

the thing moving towards us allows ‘we’ to take on a passive role. We believe that it is not our

duty to chase down the future, expecting and waiting for it to arrive. This is the core of Larkin’s

argument, and where he finds frustration.

Larkin paints a beautiful picture of the nearing ships, representing the glorious future.

‘Golden tits’ suggests wealth, but is also sexualisation of the future – romanticised right up until

the end of its approach.

The ‘we’ in the poem spends ‘so’ much time idolising the future they forgot to think about

the present. A whole lifetime wasted by waiting and waiting for something that never came.

At core, this poem is Larkin pointing out the stupidity of asking for the future instead of

enjoying the present. While the future does indeed draw closer, so does the inevitability of death.

Next Please founds itself upon the extended metaphor of ships in the distance representing the

future. This far off ‘armada’ is glorified, with Larkin’s imagery painting the sought future as

something remarkable and beautiful. He depicts people as waiting on the shores of the present,

looking out over an ocean, longing for their futures. The sudden change from the glorified future

to the harsh actuality of approaching death is incredibly depressing.

In conclusion, romanticisation of the future is a dangerous game. Larkin urges the reader to

break out of the ‘we’, to grip the present and not let go.Larkin implores the reader to focus on the

present, before it’s too late. The entire poem can be read here.

Churning Day by Seamus Heaney

A thick crust, coarse-grained as limestone rough-cast,

hardened gradually on top of the four crocks

that stood, large pottery bombs, in the small pantry.

After the hot brewery of gland, cud and udder,

cool porous earthenware fermented the buttermilk

for churning day, when the hooped churn was scoured

with plumping kettles and the busy scrubber

echoed daintily on the seasoned wood.

It stood then, purified, on the flagged kitchen floor.

Out came the four crocks, spilled their heavy lip

of cream, their white insides, into the sterile churn.

The staff, like a great whisky muddler fashioned

in deal wood, was plunged in, the lid fitted.

My mother took first turn, set up rhythms

that slugged and thumped for hours. Arms ached.

Hands blistered. Cheeks and clothes were spattered with flabby milk.

Where finally gold flecks

began to dance. They poured hot water then,

sterilized a birchwood-bowl

and little corrugated butter-spades.

Their short stroke quickened, suddenly

a yellow curd was weighting the churned up white,

heavy and rich, coagulated sunlight

that they fished, dripping, in a wide tin strainer,

heaped up like gilded gravel in the bowl.

The house would stink long after churning day,

acrid as a sulphur mine. The empty crocks

were ranged along the wall again, the butter

in soft printed slabs was piled on pantry shelves.

And in the house we moved with gravid ease,

our brains turned crystals full of clean deal churns,

the plash and gurgle of the sour-breathed milk,

the pat and slap of small spades on wet lumps.

Critical Analysis of the Poem Churning Day

Heaney describes the production of farm-made butter witnessed as a youngster. The poem

reveals close observations of the technical stages that accompany a ‘magical’ transformation.

The process is akin to alchemy: the family produces gold from base metal, butter from milk!

They are magicians

Heaney's poems often celebrate the skills of the ordinary rural people. This poem reflects

Heaney’s memory of growing up in the family farm and witnessing the buttermaking process -a

regular part of the life of the farm. The poem uses a range of imagery -the sounds and smalls of

the farm are clear in the writing.

There is also a realistic view of the “butter”, “house would stink” – this shows the smell in the

house after the “butter” was churned, this shows that it was done by hand as if machinery was

used then there would not be any smell left over. In “Churning Day” we can see Heaney is fond

of nature as it brings good things, after the hard work, as the butter was made after all the hard

work put into it.

Churning Day” is all about family unity whereas .“Churning Day” Heaney is narrating as the

3rd person. We obviously know that children do not use words like that. Although in “Churning

Day” Heaney uses “plash” which sounds childish, or one that he has just made up. Which shows

he remembers the event clearly.

Churning Day” has a slight bit of religion in it, as Heaney uses “purified”, this is not only for

religion but it does remind us of religion.Also churning day is like a ritual. And the family is

united in the butter making ritual, just like people are united in the church. Heaney appreciates

nature in “Churning Day” as it brings good things, for example butter.

Structurally the poem comes close to free-verse in the lack of a clear rhythmic pattern, which

is not to say lines are devoid of their own strong rhythmic tread, as in the opening of the second

stanza when the crocks emerge like characters in Disney’s Fantasia.

Heaney plays with a half line at the mid-point, to draw attention to the miraculous moment

when the ‘flabby milk’ becomes ‘gold flecks’ which began to dance for joy and the whole family

breathe again, as the butter becomes reality. For butter really is seen as a life-giving element. It is

‘coagulated sunlight’ a metaphor which juxtaposes the negative and positive but focuses on the

wonder of the butter, stirred by a ‘whisky muddler’ – apt since whisky is also the ‘water of life’.

The process is brought to life by alliteration and imagery as the poem continues.

Onomatopoeia is used as the ‘plumping’ kettles – giving both sound and shape – are contrasted

with the light and speedy ‘busy scrubber’, again giving a clear idea of the sounds heard

emanating from within.

The themes in these poems include family relationships, closeness and security in the family,

nature, the love of nature but also the negative view of nature, and moving from childhood to

adulthood.In “Churning Day” Heaney uses a full stop at the end of each stanza, this could be to

show us the next stage of the process.

Magic is a thing of the innocent. Children wonder at the mundane. Heaney explores this here,

he revels in the memory of the events and recalls his mother working like some master magician,

much in the same way as he reveres his father and grand-father in Digging. However, he leaves

the poem rooted in the reality of an older, more experienced man. He has grown up.